Homer, Winslow

1836 - Born on February 24th in Boston, Massachusettes. An American maritime painter of "Eight Bells".

1855 - At the age of 19, Homer was apprenticed to J.H. Bufford's lithographic firm in Boston. Although the superior quality of his work earned him more and more responsibility, he found the work stifling and tedious, and upon attaining his majority he left the shop to become a freelance illustrator.

1859 - Homer moved to New York City, where he studied briefly at the NAD, took a few painting lessons with Frederic Rondel, and set up a studio at the 10th Street Studio Building.

1863 - The war also furnished him with the subjects for the first two pictures which he exhibited, one of which was "Home, Sweet Home".

1865 - He devoted increasing attention to painting, however, and was elected a member of the NAD.

- His "Prisoners from the Front" -- perhaps his most generally popular picture -- was exhibited in New York.

1866 - Was further distinguished by the exhibition of his Prisoners at the Front in the Paris Exposition.

- Homer went to Paris that year, but little is known of his activities during the ten months he spent abroad.

1868-1869 - Domestic travel for the next 15 years included trips to the White Mountains, the Adirondacks, and Gloucester,

1873 - He received his M.A.

1876 - For the next 17 years, his major source of income came from drawings for illustrated weekly magazines, such as Harper's Weekly, Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly Newspaper, and Appleton's Journal.

- Among his other paintings in oil are "Snap the Whip" (which was exhibited at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition and in company with "The Country Schoolroom", at the Paris Salon the following year), "Eating Watermelon", "The Cotton Pickers", "Visit from the Old Mistress, Sunday Morning", "The Life-Line" and "The Coming of the Gale".

1881 - Homer returned to Europe, he did not go back to Paris, which was bursting with American art students at the ateliers, but chose, instead, the small fishing community of Tynemouth, on the cold gray northeast coast of England.

1882 - Following his return home, Homer moved from his New York studio to the rugged coast of Prout's Neck, ME.

- For the remainder of his life this was his home, though he continued seasonal travels to Quebec and the Adirondacks in the summer months, and to Florida, Bermuda, and Nassau in the Bahamas in the winter.